JR trips with Beautiful Scenery

HiWe will be using our 7-day JR Pass for the following places:Kyoto to HimejiKyoto to Odawara (for Hakone)Odawara to ShinjukuShinjuku to Otsuki (for Kawaguchiko)Shinjuku to Hitachi Seaside ParkShinjuku to Hitsujiyama Park

We’ve got two questions(1)Will the above train trips involve going through a lot of tunnels or will they be through beautiful scenery? We would really like train trips with beautiful scenery.(2)Is there a JR train ride from Shinjuku or Kyoto station you can recommend that would have nice scenery during the train journey?

Comments

Kyoto - Himeji: Shinkansen has more tunnels than Shinkaisoku (rapid train).Kyoto - Odawara: Shinkansen would be OK but in urbanized areas.Odawara - Shinjuku: The same above. Odakyu has a direct route.Shinkuju - Otsuki: A rural route once the train goes out from Tokyo.Shinjuku - Hitachi: Mostly in the Greater Tokyo.Shinjuku - Chichibu: By Seibu, not by JR. Chichibu Railways from Kumagaya would be OK.

Your routes are basically in the urbanized zone. JR is better on the countryside. Someone here recommends Sanyo railways from Suma to Maiko Koen, a part of Kyoto and Himeji.https://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/3068177.html

Thank you for your advice and suggestions. As this is just our second time to Japan and first time using the JR Pass, we are still trying to figure out Hyperdia for the different routes and areas. Thanks.

As mentioned, most of your routes are not in rural areas so there is not that much to see. There are far fewer tunnels between Tokyo and Kyoto than south of Kyoto however. If the weather cooperates (and it often doesn't), you could see Mt. Fuji going from Kyoto if you sit on the left hand side. If you have a JR Pass, seat reservations are free.

In the Fuji 5 Lakes area, don't miss the shibazakura - they are wonderful.https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6919.htmlYou can also see them at Chichibu.For the Hitachi Seaside Park, if you like, you could stop in Mito along the way and see the Kairakuen Garden - it is rated as one of Japan's traditional Top 3.https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6201.htmlYou can't take JR trains all the way to the Hitachi Seaside Park though. You can go up to Katsuta Stn and catch a 15 minute bus ride the rest of the way (¥400, 2-3 buses/hour).

Japan Rail Pass is a rather expensive pass and should be treated as a kind of an air pass. You should need to ride long-distance Shinkansen trains multiple times in order to pay off the pass. As you have already worried about, most of Shinkansen train tracks are tunnels, just like clouds from airplanes. Shinkansen trains should run fast. The tracks should be as straight as possible. Japan is a mountainous island country. There are many roads and train tracks in narrow plains. Tunnels are thus unavoidable to Shinkansen tracks lately built.

I show a list of all the places appeared in the following two FAQ pages at the next post. It should be far from complete, however, there is only one entry from Shinkansen tracks. That is Oshimizu Tunnel on Joetsu Shinkansen. It is said that it would be a wonderful moment to see a snow world just after passing the tunnel from the dry Kanto Plain in winter.https://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/3068177.htmlhttps://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/5080489.html

WOW!! Thank you, LUISJP for your many many links. I’ve looked at those that were presented in English.

One question – in your post, for Kyoto to Odawara, your suggestion is to take local trains on Tokaido line, NOT by Tokaido Shinkansen.

Based on the hyperdia link you attached, doing the local line will take 435 minutes with 6 transfers, leaving at 0929 and arriving at 1644. Initially, we were planning to just use Shinkansen Hikari, which will take us 123 min with 0 transfer, leaving at 0832 and arriving at 1035.

So, doing the longer local trains will give us a more scenic ride while doing the Hikari would be mostly through tunnels?

We will have to work out whether we want a longer scenic ride or spend more time in Hakone.

So, you may choose one of the followings, depending on your preference.1. Kyoto-(Shinkansen)-Odawara2. Kyoto-(Shinkansen)-Atami-(Local)-Odawara3. Kyoto-(Local)-Nagoya-(Shinkansen)-Atami-(Local)-Odawara4. Kyoto-(Local)-Odawara